Tuesday 21 February 2012

Amazing World



Some Amazing Photos Of Our Wonderful World


louque:

yesh.
Courtesy Fermilab

smithsonianmag:

The Highest Resolution Image of Earth Ever
“This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on January 4, 2012.”
Photo courtesy of NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
Ed note: Perfect for your desktop background. Click the photo for the 8000x8000 image
Highest resolution photo of the earth Jan 2012
Courtesy NASA
cwnl:

Alien Life May Depend on Planetary Tilt
Image: Habitable planets might have too short a window for life to develop before gravitational interactions with a close, red star destroy obliquity, and therefore seasons. Credit: David A. Aguilar, CfA
Although winter now grips the Northern Hemisphere, those who dislike the cold weather can rest assured that warmer months shall return. This familiar pattern of spring, summer, fall and winter does more than merely provide variety, however. The fact that life can exist at all on Earth is closely tied to seasonality, which is a sign of global temperature moderation.
The driver of our seasons is the slight “lean” Earth has in its rotational axis as it revolves around the sun, known as axial tilt or obliquity. According to René Heller, a postdoctoral research associate at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, Germany, astrobiologists have not yet paid much attention to this variable in gauging the possibility for alien life to exist on distant planets.
“Obliquity and seasonal aspects are an important issue in understanding exoplanet habitability that has mostly been neglected so far,” Heller said. 
To address this gap, Heller and his colleagues published two papers recently looking at how the gravitational interactions of stars and planets eventually erode a planet’s axial tilt. The findings do not bode well for planets residing in the habitable, or “Goldilocks,” zones around red dwarf stars smaller than the sun. These zones are the just-right temperature bands wherein water can remain liquid on the surface of a planet.
Image - Habitable planets with short window for life to develop.
The red star destroys obliquity and therefore seasons.
Courtesy David Arguilar
Wonders of the sea urchins
Via Tumblr

A puzzle

A second puzzle


These two are actually topographical maps of the moon created by NASA and the USA Geological Survey. Amazing to have this much detail on a place so very far away.



mothernaturenetwork:

Milky Way Galaxy may contain 160 billion planetsA 6-year search that surveyed millions of stars concluded that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception.
The Milky Way Galaxy


Apparently the Milky Way Galaxy may contain 160 billion planets!!!



6 comments:

  1. Great way to start the day, thank you.

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  2. I particularly like the sea urchins

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  3. it truelly is a wonderful world xx

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  4. They are all works of art. The sea urchins are my favourite. Annabellouise

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  5. Lovely images - the atomic particles pic is amazing!

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  6. Cool! Love the sea urchins. Thanks for sharing. :-)

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